In less than ten minutes Bob heard hushed footsteps approaching, and nurse's soothing tender voice was in his ears. Leaning on the strong old arm that had carried him as a baby, and supported by Dina on the other side, he staggered back towards the house.
"I was rather long in comin', my darlin'," said nurse, "but I stayed to get my room on the ground floor ready for you. Come right in there. The servants has gone back to their beds; only the upper housemaid and the governess are up, and they're with master."
"Is he badly hurt?" asked Bob.
"Can't tell yet, my dear; it were a hard knock; he hasn't come to himself yet, I understand."
The burglar and his two protectors met no one as they entered the side door, and safely gained nurse's room, where the bed was in readiness for the patient.
"Now, Miss Dina," said nurse, "leave me to look after Master Bob, and you must be on the look-out for the doctor when he comes down from master's room, and send him in here to see his other patient. And not a word about this business to anyone to-night."
Things straightened out to some extent and fell into working order during the next few days, without anyone but the twins and nurse knowing who had been the burglar. Dina had felt she could not keep the secret from Gerald, but she knew that he was to be trusted.
That Master Bob should have come home to be nursed when he was ill seemed a natural thing to the servants, and the surgeon (an old friend of the family) was the only outsider who knew to what the illness was due. By his express orders, Mr. Ellis had not yet been told of his son's presence in the house. As the doctor very sensibly said, the excitement of this unexpected news might retard the older patient's recovery; while, as for the burglar, he was supposed to have got clean away, taking nothing with him, and leaving behind not a clue to his whereabouts.
But then came a time when Mr. Ellis was getting better, and it was felt by all the household that the secret of Bob's presence in the house could no longer be kept. Mr. Ellis had really been at his best during his illness. Miss Burnard, who had quietly assumed the necessary authority on the first night, had been head nurse, and her firm gentleness and skill had exerted a good influence, keeping in check the man's selfishness and peevish discontent. So that, when the doctor told nurse that her master must now be informed that his son was at home, it seemed as though it would be easier to tell him than it would have been a fortnight before.
"Suppose you go to dad, Gerry," said Dina, "and tell him that Brother Bob is here ill. Dad would take it best from you."